Will & Dre

During the first weekend of May 2010 we had the opportunity to fish the dam of Kolobe Bush Retreat on invite by Nico Hulst.

Kolobe Bush Retreat

Kolobe is situated in Modimolle (previously known as Nylstroom), on the Rietspruit river. The resort is excellent for bass fishing and signs of a healthy echo system is evident.

We set up camp on the Friday evening. It was just a day or two after full moon and the weather was pleasant. The sky was clear and there was almost no wind. After we had a cup of instant soup we were ready for a short “power nap” before we were to catch the big ones.

At half past 4 I woke up. Andre must have heard me shift the mattress in my tent and no later I heard him say : “OK lets start building those rigs”. It was only after we had the water boiling for a cup of coffee that we realized how early it actually was. Non the less we started building a few rigs for the big carp. Apart from bass the dam also holds some carp, including ghost carp and dwarf carp as well as barbel.

Preparing our rigs

Before dawn our lines were in. Since we fished for the bigger carp and had bait to match (tigernuts and boilies) there was no need to change our lines throughout day so we spent the rest of our day doing some bass fishing.

Bass fishing from the bank

I caught a few bass in my life, as you might have see on previous posts, but probably mostly by luck, rather than knowledge or technique.

We tried many different kinds of spinner and top water baits which only produced some knocks. It was only later the afternoon after meeting a friend of Nico and professional bass angler, Andrew, that we started pulling them out. Andrew himself caught the first one.

Andrew with the first catch for the day

By following Andrew’s advise I managed to pull out 4 hand sized bass. Andrew had a few more catches, including a larger bass as well as a crab who found the bait interesting or perhaps enticing.

Following Andrew's advice I caught a few of these

Baby largemouth bass

This is not a fish?

Andre got his camera into the water but it miraculously survived and we are able to have a post with pictures. Andre’s wife, Michelle joined us. They made a lekker potjie so we had food for the rest of the weekend.

Potjiekos

All and all this was a great weekend. Unfortunately we were unable to catch any carp but we learned a lot about bass fishing. We found Kolobe to be a great destination not just because of its fishing possibilities but also because of the tranquility of the bushveld. Each camping site has enough space so the atmosphere is different than what you’d have at some of the larger dams.

Keep an eye on our site as we will soon be giving you the chance to win a break away to Kolobe Bush Retreat. Information on how you could become one of our lucky winners will follow in our next few posts.